i'm writing a sitcom set in a mental hospital, does anyone think, if good, i will have any joy or is it gonna be a no no?
Mental hospital
Any material, handled well, can be a yes yes, so really impossible to say until we've seen it.
I don't see why not. 'Asylum' got made.
Quote: Griff @ June 27 2008, 1:56 PM BSTNothing wrong with the setting, as long as it isn't just full of "ha ha aren't retards hilarious" gags which isn't likely to play well in the BBC etc.
Yeah. Calling it "Spackers" would be a definite no-no.
Quote: David Bussell @ June 27 2008, 2:05 PM BSTYeah. Calling it "Spackers" would be a definite no-no.
OMG ... best sitcom title ever...now to come up with my own premise to fit...
I reckon you could get away with that if you properly empowered the spackers and made them decent, relatable characters.
You'd still need to steer clear of the 'aren't retards funny' jokes but I reckon it's doable.
Quote: paul toft @ June 27 2008, 1:50 PM BSTi'm writing a sitcom set in a mental hospital, does anyone think, if good, i will have any joy or is it gonna be a no no?
One flew over the cookoo nest did a decent job. Also, 'I'm with Stupid' handled disability well, as long as you make the staff look madder and more out of control than the inhabitants.
i'd say almost impossible.
cucooks nest used the illness of the charcters for dramatic effect (as a drama would) you cant avoid using it for comedic effect in a comedy.....and that wont fly.
There is a difference between mental illness and mental handicap, you know.
People in mental hospitals are nutters, not spackers.
It's a top idea. check out Taking over Asylum which covered similar ground, or even my own estimable You'd have to be mad to live here. ROtting unloved somewhere in bowels of critique.
n.b. the whole of Taking over The Asylum is on Yout tube currently.
I'm thinking about the 80's movie with Michael Keaton and Christopher Lloyd "The Dream Team".
Quote: Pete @ June 27 2008, 2:41 PM BSTi'd say almost impossible.
cucooks nest used the illness of the charcters for dramatic effect (as a drama would) you cant avoid using it for comedic effect in a comedy.....and that wont fly.
The point was that you can do it without taking the piss out of the patients, which is not impossible even for a comedy. At the end of the day comedy has a target and the target doesn't have to be the inhabitants, it can be the staff/visitors. I like the idea, stay open-minded rather than narrow-minded and it will work.
Look at Extras when they had that disabled girl on it, the jokes weren't at her expense but Andy Millman's.
Go for it.
Is it a nice clean shiny modern hospital or a nice dark Victorian style one?
I'd prefer the latter myself. But either could be good!
Haha!